27 December 2015

Techniques for setting tone

Departing for the unknown

Setting the tone for a novel and staying true to that tone throughout can have a profound impact on everything that happens around it. The characters you develop, the words you use, and pictures you paint all have to fit into that chosen tonality.


23 December 2015

Opening lines



What's the point of an opening line? Is it to intrigue someone so much that they must continue on? Is it to set the tone for the rest of the book?  Is to make someone stop and think or pay attention right from the start? Or is to paint a picture in which the story will unfold?

Perhaps it's a little of each of those things.I've been practicing writing opening lines for images posted on Twitter by iAuthor.  

Here's an opening line I think will work in a future novel I am planning to write.

"My past held a very bright future. Then, life cast its shadows on my prospects." 

My story is going to take place on land but told from the perspective of being at sea.  It's going to reach into the deepest darkest places of someone's soul, but it will come out into the light in the end. At least that's the plan.

09 December 2015

Stoking the imagination

As I near completion of my first novel, I am searching for the topic for my next one. For the next one, I have decided, is going to take every ounce of my effort to craft the fine literary novel.  The book that Joseph Conrad or Hemingway would have written.  I want it to be short, poignant and beautifully written. But what should I write about?